The Morning Show Season 4 debuted with a gripping plot involving a foreign athlete, political tensions, and a cry for help. However, did you know that the episode's central "We want to defect" letter has significant real-life connections? Apple TV+'s hit drama has never been one to shy away from steeping its newsroom narrative in real-world issues, whether it be the navigation of the 'Me Too' movement in Season 1, or the power of money over the modern media landscape in Season 3.
The Morning Show continued this 'pulled from the headlines' strategy to kick off Season 4, tackling the real-world issue of foreign nationals fleeing to the United States (usually for the purpose of asylum).
The Morning Show is still one of Apple TV+'s biggest series, despite seeing a relative dip in viewership in Season 3. Starring Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Billy Crudup, and many others, the star-studded series follows the life and times of several staff members of a daily morning news show in New York City.
The Morning Show's 'We Want To Defect' Real-World Connections Explained
Yes, the letter Alex receives from the Iranian fencer in The Morning Show's Season 4 premiere makes for excellent TV, as it pulls Jennifer Aniston's character from the airwaves and sends her on this altruistic quest to address this plea for help, but it is also very much based on a devastating reality.
Season 4, Episode 1 (subtitled "My Roman Empire") sees Jennifer Aniston's Alex Levy interviewing Iranian athlete, Roya Nazeri, on TV in the lead-up to the Olympics. Eventually, Arsham, the father of Alex's esteemed guest, hands the long-standing TV host a small piece of paper with "We want to defect" splayed across it.
Shocked by the sentiment, Alex asks a deeply political question to the Iranian Olympian as a distraction, pulling the interview off the air and, hopefully, giving her a chance to gather her thoughts. In the ensuing chaos, Roya and her father manage to escape in a gripping car chase thanks to Alex pulling the fire alarm.
Alex is pulled from her pre-Olympic coverage and told to stay out of political issues with the visiting athletes. She does exactly the opposite, though, instead seeking the counsel of her law professor father (played by Jeremy Irons).
He tells her there is nothing he can do, but she seemingly will not take that for an answer, with this declaration of defection resonating with the Morning Show mainstay, setting up her emotional drive for this part of the season.
But this moment was not entirely a work of fiction. As with many elements of The Morning Show story, this "We want to defect" letter takes inspiration from a very real place.
Over the years, dozens of athletes, specifically from Iran, have defected to the United States.
These defection efforts are often done as a public way of turning a cold shoulder to the policies, doctrine, or actions of one's home government. In the case of Iran, a spike in high-profile defections has occurred since the early 1980s, when the West Asian nation became an independent state known as the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In the time since the revolution, Iran's government has enacted totalitarian rule over its people. The United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission have both condemned the country for its treatment of its citizens, its use of 'extrajudicial' actions by the state, and the killing of political prisoners (per Al Jazeera).
Because of this, various big-name Iranian athletes, public figures, and diplomats have very publicly defected in an effort to speak out against the country's governing regime while also escaping its grasp.
Recent cases have included 21-year-old Iranian Olympian Kimia Alizadeh, who defected from her home country in 2020, just four years after winning a bronze medal in taekwondo at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Explaining the reasoning behind her defection, Alizadeh explained in an Instagram post announcing her efforts (via CNN) that she was "one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years."
Alizadeh (who was Iran's only female Olympic medalist at the time of her defection) has since received her Bulgarian citizenship and represented Bulgaria at the 2024 Summer Olympics, where she won another bronze medal.
Other high-profile Iranian defectors include Olympic judoka Saeid Mollaei, diplomat Mohammad Reza Heydari, and singer Marzieh.
From these stories, The Morning Show pulled the inspiration for its Season 4 Iranian fencing team narrative and the ensuing plea for defection from Ava Lalezarzadeh's Roya Nazeri.
